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Vegans walk aisle with the Colonel

By john goddardstaff reporter

Fri., Sept. 12, 2008

Two animal-rights activists got married yesterday at Kentucky Fried Chicken.

After saying vows among cooked-fowl smells at a congested Queen St. W. lunch counter, bride Alex Bury and groom Jack Norris served a new KFC vegetarian sandwich to celebrate the global fast-food chain getting into bed with People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA.

"I would love to see the whole world go vegan tomorrow, but that's not going to happen," said the bride, dressed in a long-train white gown of cotton and polyester, but no silk-worm silk.

"(This agreement) is going to cause so much less suffering for animals," Bury said.

In June, U.S.-based PETA agreed to drop its five-year "Kentucky Fried Cruelty" campaign in Canada. In exchange, the Canadian branch committed itself to higher bird-care standards and the introduction last week of the tofu chicken-tasting sandwich at nearly 500 of its 785 Canadian outlets.

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"I don't see it as selling out," McGill University management and marketing professor Karl Moore said of the animal-rights group, perhaps best known for its naked anti-fur protestors.

"Over the last five to 10 years, we've seen a shift," Moore said. "We've seen more respect between businesses and NGOs (non-government organizations), where they don't spit at each other the way they might have in the past.

"`Let's treat the birds better' is not so extreme a position as `It's wrong to eat chicken,'" the professor said. "I think also business is saying, `Maybe they have a point here.'"

Liz White, leader of the Animal Alliance and Environment Voters Party of Canada, agreed.

"We obviously advocate a vegetarian lifestyle and PETA does, too," said White, who is a federal candidate in Toronto Centre.

"The fact that PETA has been able to get them to negotiate some improvements in terms of living conditions, slaughtering conditions and having a menu alternative – all of that is good."

The newlyweds, from Oakland, Calif., cut a cake on the sidewalk in front of a "Family Fun Bucket" window poster, then danced to a violin and cello duo.

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PETA spokesperson Nicole Matthews, attending from Michigan, spoke of "the delicious vegetarian sandwich, with all the flavour and texture of real chicken flesh ... but better for the birds."

She was happy to promote KFC Canada, she said. The "Kentucky Fried Cruelty" campaign, featuring celebrity Pamela Anderson, otherwise continues throughout the world.

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